Disney Research Shows Off Touch-Sensing Technology

Disney's Touché can detect your presence and movements, even in water.

Who even knew that Disney had a research team? They aren’t just testing out new rides and fried treats, either. Disney Research is bringing geek cred to the House of Mouse with a YouTube video that shows off touch and gesture technology, known as Touché.

Based on “Swept Frequency Capacitive Sensing,” Touché can add gesture control to everything from touchscreens to body parts to something that may scare the crap out of your kids. According to The Verge, it actually detects a range of frequencies instead of one. The end result is that it doesn’t just know when you are touching something, but how you are touching it.

The video below shows off pinches, grasps, and even some water play. It also claims, “It is not inconceivable that one day, mobile devices could have no screens or buttons and rely exclusively on the body as the input surface.”

Of course, Disney doesn’t tell us when that day will be. Still, it’s a neat little demo that gets us excited about things to come — even things like a touch-sensitive doorknob.